Constructivist Toolkit

Camp is special. I loved leading outdoor trips during my undergraduate experience (COOP at Columbia University) and then working at Keewaydin Dunmore in Vermont for many years as a staffman and trip leader. In the last two weeks, I was at two separate events that I can playfully describe as ‘grown-up nerd camps.’ The first was the Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) Academy in Houston. Teachers and leaders from across the United States gathered together to share best practices and create experiences around the Apple technologies that we find useful in schools.

​The second was Global Online Academy’s Summer Institute on Bainbridge Island, WA. Steve (Blending Leadership co-author) and I facilitated a 2-day workshop within the larger program for school leaders from a variety of independent schools and organizations across the globe. We used much of our previous thinking, now iterated upon and developed further, from the book to frame the activities. This also meant that we planned to iterate and adapt based on the developing actual, real-time needs and interests of those in the room. This can be difficult from a planning perspective, and I gave Steve two new constraints that I was interested in testing at this event. First, we would not use/reuse any pre-packaged or previously used visuals. Second, we would keep the amount of visual ‘slides’ to just a few (average of less than 1 per 30 minutes of workshop time).